Men Celebrate 50th with Win over USAO

Siloam Springs, Ark. (January 24, 2009) - It was a packed house on Saturday afternoon as the JBU Golden Eagles celebrated 50 years of men’s basketball. The game went down to the wire, but the Golden Eagle squad didn’t disappoint the fans after pulling out a one-point 61-60 win over the Drovers of Science and Arts of Oklahoma. With the win, JBU improves to 14-6 overall and 7-5 in the Sooner Athletic Conference.

Andrius Mikutis paced JBU with 13 points after going 2-of-3 from the floor and a perfect 8-of-8 from the charity stripe. Davaughn Jackson and Abel Galliguez added 12, and Jarrett McGriff rounded out the double digit scoring with 10.

Allen Harris led USAO (7-10, 4-7) with 16 points.

The first half saw USAO take a 27-26 halftime edge after seven ties and four lead changes.

Later in the second half, USAO pushed it to a ten-point, 51-41, advantage with less than nine minutes remaining in the game. JBU responded with a 12-2 run capped off by a Galliguez trey to tie things up at 53 before eventually taking their first lead of the second half at 60-58 with 2:58 remaining.

Next possession, USAO’s Harris scored his sixteenth point to knot things back up at 60. But a foul on the other end sent JBU’s McGriff to the line where he converted the first of two free three attempts to give JBU the one point lead.

After calling a timeout to set up the play, USAO would have 11.0 seconds to go for the win. But JBU clamped down on defense, forced a loose ball, and recorded the steal as time expired.

On the day, JBU shot 42.1% (16-of-38) from the field including 46.2% (6-of-13) from long distance.

USAO, shot 41.8% (23-of-55) from the floor, but struggled from three only canning 3-of-19 for a dismal 15.8 percent.

On the glass, JBU fell by one 32-31 and also committed 14 turnovers while only forcing 11 from the Drovers.

Up next, the Golden Eagles take to the road to face Lubbock Christian on Thursday at 8 p.m. and Wayland Baptist on Saturday at 3 p.m.